


Art Student AUs

by traveler_of_heart



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Art AUs, F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-23
Updated: 2016-05-30
Packaged: 2018-06-10 07:15:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6945094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/traveler_of_heart/pseuds/traveler_of_heart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on this tumblr post http://shittyaus.tumblr.com/post/121293795393/art-student-aus</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Kara didn’t particularly enjoy feeling human. Blowing out her powers also reminded her she relied to much on her strenght; moments like this made her wonder what would happen to who she was if she went from extraordinary to normal in one second. Would life be boring? Would her friends leave her? And what of the people she needed to protect and help? In spite of being temporary, loosing her powers made Kara’s world go upside down, tormenting her with questions she kept on the back of her mind most of the time.

This time had been particularly bad; even Cat was tiptoeing around her, hugging her too tight or reaching out to touch her at every chance, to make sure she was still there. Kara understood. When she closed her eyes, she remembered being embraced by darkness, the ocean swallowing more of her at every moment she sank.

So she focused on her art. Settling next to one of the penthouse windows, she laid a canvas and some paint, trying to bury the memories of a fight almost lost. The sun caressed her face through the glass, and she sighed, relieved. Cat had offered numerous times to build her a studio in one of the many spare rooms. But Kara liked to look out the window and get lost in the landscapes of National City.

This time, she was so enthralled by the colors of a beautiful sunset that she didn’t realise when her brush went too low; the cold contact of painting against her skin made her jump startled.

“Oh, no”, she said, jumping up and trying to stop it from making a bigger mess. Red painting had stained the lower front of her shirt and all of the carpet of the living room. Cat’s very expensive carpet. Kara gulped.

“Dear, have you seen…?” Cat walked in, hand glued to her phone as usual. She lifted her gaze and her eyes widen at the sight of the girl. “Oh, my God! Kara, what happened? Lay down, we need to stop the bleeding!”

“What?” 

Cat practically tackled her to the ground, pressing down Kara’s abdomen with a couch cushion and began to dial a number on her phone.

“Yes, this is an emergency” she barked at the operator.

“CAT!”

“Don’t you dare die on me, Kara!”

“It’s painting!”

“Oh, God, she’s being delusional. Please hurry!”

Kara rolled her eyes, stood up and lifted her shirt, to show a perfectly intact abdomen.

“Oh. Never mind”, Cat said sheepishly and hung up. She threw herself to Kara’s arms, hugging her tight. “Idiot”

“I’m sorry” Kara said, burying her face in Cat’s hair. “Sorry about the carpet”

“It’s ok…” Cat stepped back and wrapped her arms around Kara’s waist. “But will you let me build you a studio that is far away from expensive stuff, please?”

“Can I have a window?”

“There might be one in your future”, Cat said and they both laughed.

“Deal”


	2. A beautiful secret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cat gets her hands on Kara's notebook.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based on this prompt post! http://shittyaus.tumblr.com/post/121293795393/art-student-aus

Kara had no problem about giving everything for Cat. Late nights at the office? Done. Picking up Carter and helping him with his homework? She’d repeat the capital cities of the world until Carter could recite them in his sleep. And if Cat had a bad day at the office and she didn’t feel like going out even though it was their anniversary? Pizza and a movie, Kara was game. Anything Cat wanted, Kara was already agreeing. Except when it came to _the_ notebook. 

She had noticed from the days when Kara was just her assistant. During her free time,she’d take it out of her bottom drawer and began sketching, getting lost in her art until Cat barked out her name -or a version of it- and she’d leave it at the bottom again, running towards her boss.

Cat had also noticed how not even the IT gnome or James Olsen had access to the notebook. If they approached during one of those breaks, she would promptly close it, -perhaps a bit faster than a normal person would do- and divert the conversation away from what she was doing. Cat expected full access once they began to date.

She was quickly disappointed.

Cat had done all but sprinted towards the girl to rip away the notebook from her hands. In spite of being the Queen of all Media, she understood the need for privacy, but most of the times, her journalistic nature got the best of her and she simply needed to _know._

The perfect opportunity presented itself during a rainy afternoon. After Livewire, Cat wasn’t really fond of electric storms, so as soon as the first lighting crossed the sky, she closed everything and instructed her driver to take her back directly home. The only thing that kept her from throwing everything on the foyer was the sight of Kara, asleep on the couch. And, behold, the Holy Grail of the secret life of Kara Danvers was lying on the floor, probably after falling from her hands.

It wasn’t technically wrong if it was already open and in plain sight, so Cat took off her shoes and walked slowly towards the living room. She held her breath when she kneeled next to Kara and the girl let out a sigh. Was her super hearing about to kick in? But the girl stirred and went back to sleep. Cat took the notebook and crawled away, sitting at the back of the couch. The woman went to the first page; a landscape of a strange world that Cat had never seen before, perhaps Krypton. The next was a drawing of Kara’s sister, others were her friends in different poses. But after a while, everything was Cat. Working on her computer, watching the lights of National City from her balcony, resting comfortably in their bedoom and her hair messy.  The last drawing was one of her and Carter at the beach, surrounded by water and holding hands, looking to the horizon together.

Cat caressed the pages, getting some of the pencil on the tip of her fingers. There was so much love on each line and so much depth on each shadow. Kara wasn’t just drawing Cat, she was drawing her soul with an accuracy that shook the woman to the bones. 

The notebook went back to its place quietly.

*

Thunderbolt woke Kara up. She looked out the grey skies and back to the door. Cat’s stuff was on the foyer. She stood up, clearing her voice and called her name. She was about to call her again when she saw her notebook on the coffee table. Something felt off. And even though she tried to convince herself it would be stupid to get mad if Cat had seen her drawings, anger settled in the back of her mind.

“Cat?”, she insisted when she didn’t get an answer. She walked to their bedroom and heard the shower running. Cat’s phone was unblocked and Kara took it from the night stand. One of her drawings -the one with Carter at the beach - was Cat’s background. The woman couldn’t hold a giggle at that. Kara put the phone down and walked towards the shower, sliding the door open.

“Hey”, Cat said pleased at the sight of the girl. Kara was even more pleased with Cat’s body, in all of her naked glory and with small drops of water lingering on the valley of her breasts. “You’re a little over dressed, dear”

Kara walked until she pressed Cat’s body against the bathrrom wall and gave her a heated kiss.

“Let’s fix that”, she whispered againts Cat’s lips.

Kara didn’t mind what Cat saw. Because everything she was belonged to the other woman. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The prompt was: no one ever touches any of personal sketchbooks and you damn well know that but one day when u think im out/napping i catch you browsing through them with this huge nerdy smile whilst taking photos and i would be super peeved if it wasnt for me knowing that u brag about them to ur other friends and show them to them. Slightly different but kept the same idea.


	3. Perfection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara Danvers meets perfection.

Finals were coming.

You could see the crippling fear on every student’s face; the hallways were filled with people running around and people bursting into tears while eating cereal at the dining hall was a common occurrence. Even the Faculty of Arts, who was usually more laid back, was feeling the stress of exams; in that week from hell, every professor would tear down their paintings or sculptures apart until everyone reached perfection.

And since perfection was the ultimate goal for Kara Danvers, she had decided to stay until late at the faculty studio, working on her series of paintings about the chromatic circle, based on German impressionism. And hell, if that wasn’t ambitious, she didn’t know what was. She only decided to call it a day when her eyes had trouble to discern the colors and her hand held the brushes too tight. She took her bag, left the studio in complete darkness and dragged her feet to the elevator.

Kara covered her mouth while she yawned, feeling completely deflated of any energy. The mere thought of taking her stained clothes was enough to send her into a spiral of depression. So much work, so little time, she thought, pressing over and over again the button to go to the first floor. No wonder some people ended up talking heatedly to themselves while walking to class. Finals were the Hunger Games indeed. Her second yawn was interrupted by a briefcase that flew out of nowhere, preventing the elevator doors to close. Kara jolted awake, standing straight and looking at the woman on the other side, bewildered.

“Oh. I’m sorry”, she said, her cheeks blushing faintly. She put a strand of golden hair behind her ear and smiled awkwardly. “I thought I was the last one here”

“It’s ok”, Kara smiled warmly, stepping aside so the girl could get inside. “Managed to finish what you were doing?”

“Yes, I did” The woman raised a huge print of a picture as an answer, showing it proudly to Kara. It was a female torso in all its naked glory, a hand resting gingerly above the neck, while the other one slid downwards and out of frame… but Kara had a pretty good idea of what was going on. She couldn’t help the blush that crept up all the way to her ears.

The woman settled next to her, both waiting in silence for the elevator to reach their destination. It wasn’t that Kara hadn’t seen naked people before. They’ve had their fair share of models for every drawing class… the issue was that the body in the picture was absolute perfection, with small curves and a taut abdomen, each muscle perfectly sculpted as if it were a Michelangelo statue. The enticing pose did nothing but to add fuel to the fire raging inside of Kara.

“Do you like it?”, the woman said, smiling. She had caught Kara sneaking glances at her work more than once.

“Yes”, Kara answered much too fast for someone who was pretending complete nonchalance. “I mean…” she cleared her throat and tried to form a coherent sentence, “the model is magnificent”

“You think so?” the woman said with a radiant smile. “Wow”

“I’ve seen my share of naked people… For class! Of course”, Kara stammered, “and I assure you, that model of yours is perfection”

“Thank you”, the woman said, blushing and they both fell into a comfortable silence.

“Does it have a title?”

“Yes, it does. _Self portrait_ ”

“Self…?” Kara stammered as the elevator doors opened. “So that means…”

“I am the model, yes”, the woman stepped out, swaying her hips. She looked over her shoulder one last time to say goodbye. “See you around…”

“K-Kara. Danvers”, the girl answered, almost too eagerly.

“Cat Grant”, Cat practically purred, and gave a business card to Kara. “If you ever need a model, call me. I’d do it… for you”

Kara gulped, affected by the words and the predatory smile on Cat’s face, who walked away after lingering for a second on the girl’s personal space.

“See you, Cat”, Kara practically squealed. She held the card, her heart beating out of control.

The woman turned around at the exact same time the elevators door began to close and pressed down against Kara’s sides. The girl jumped forward, hoping Cat hadn’t noticed. But -just her luck- the woman was standing in the middle of the foyer, trying to hold her laughter. She felt better when Cat mouthed _Call me_ and walked out of the building, holding the picture proudly.

_She’s perfect. And I’m screwed._


	4. Lucky me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara Danvers will fight you for a tube of painting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Adriana, because I'm lucky to have you

_I just need some luck_ , she thought desperately.

Kara ran around the corner, holding her bag with one hand and her glasses with the other. She dodged a man talking on his cellphone by mere inches, but still got the customary _Watch out!_ coupled with an insult she chose to ignore.

The blonde sprinted forward after slowing down to shout an apology and kept her race against time.

“Yes!”, she hissed when she spotted the sign of the art supply store. It was still open and maybe, just maybe, she would manage to get through her finals. In her hurry, the blonde forgot to look before crossing the street; all she heard was the screech of tires; without thought, Kara extended one hand forward to hold the impact, forgetting for a moment that a simple human could never stop a car with their bare hands. Luckily, the black SUV came to a halt without her help, crashing lightly against her palm.

“Are you ok?”, the driver said, kicking the door open and rushing to her side.

“Yeah” Kara looked around, hoping no one would notice the slight bump on the front of the car. She couldn’t deal with exams _and_ getting outed in the same day. “Sorry for that!” She crossed the street towards the art store without looking back. The faster she could disappear among the crowd, the better.

“Grumbacher!”, Kara said as soon as she managed to get to the counter.

“Third aisle, right at the end” the clerk answered without batting an eye at the girl’s obvious desperation. He was used to artists showing up at the most random of times, shouting brands or colors, afraid that the outburst of creativity would disappear if they didn’t get what they needed immediately.

Kara ran towards the aisle, searching frantically between the labels. She finally read the name of the brand she was looking for and took out all the boxes, scrambling to find the rare shade of crimson she needed to finish her project.

“Come on, come on, come on”, she muttered under her breath. In a fit of frustration, she dropped all the tubes to the floor and began to search around, one by one. Defeat was taking over her as she realised the painting wasn’t anywhere in sight… until she saw one of the tubes -the one she desperately needed- had rolled away and far from her reach. Not caring what other customers would think, Kara crawled to the tube and just as she was about to grab it, a small, delicate hand took it away from her.

“Hey!” she said, standing up to face the thief.

“Yes?”, the petite woman answered, opening the tube to check the quality and color.

“Well…” Kara stammered, thrown off by the nonchalance of the woman who had just stolen her paint. “That’s mine!”

“Have you given any money for it and gotten a receipt to prove the purchase?” the woman answered, still unaffected by Kara’s anger.

“No. Not yet, I mean.”, the girl said, fidgeting with her glasses. She was tempted to snatch the tube from the woman and run away.

“Then it’s not yours. _Yet_ ” the woman finally looked up and a flash of recognition passed by her beautiful features. “Hey, I know you. You’re the crazy girl who almost got run over”

“I was in a hurry”

“Well, now my car has a bump in the front and I’m pretty sure it was where your hand landed. How do you explain that?”

Kara widened her eyes.  

“I don’t know what you’re talking about”

“Tell me and I’ll give you the tube”

The girl’s eyes went from the paint to the woman. She felt oddly drawn to her, but could also hear the Danvers and their warnings in the back of her mind. Spilling a secret was never worth it, especially if the only reason was the magnetic pull she felt for the beautiful girl in front of her.

“Keep it”, Kara said defeated and turned to walk out of the store. Once on the street, she tried to get lost in the crowd, to lose sight of the girl. A few moments later, she felt the pull of an arm and she was once again faced with the blonde.

“Have dinner with me. Tomorrow”, she said out of breath. It was clear she had run a big distance just to find Kara.

“I already told you, I won’t…” Kara said, confused.

“That’s not why I’m asking for”

“Then why?”

“You’re cute. That’s about it”

“Fine. Dinner”

“I’ll pick you up here at seven. Try not to destroy my car again…?”

“Kara”

“Cat”, she said and started to walk back. “See you tomorrow… Oh, wait”, she leaned forward, grabbed Kara’s hand and placed the tube on her palm, wrapping her fingers around it. “Here”

“Don’t you need it?”

“I already got what I wanted” Cat winked at her and walked away.

Kara held the tube of paint and smiled like a teenager.

She got luckier than expected.


	5. If you have her

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> if you have it, flaunt it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Adriana, you evil, beautiful genius ;)

Kara was aware of how lucky she was to have the Danvers in her life, and she had always tried to be the daughter they wanted. So when the time to choose a career came and the idea of being an artist was not so appreciated by Eliza, Kara did what she thought was right and compromised: something realistic -like her foster mom wanted- but where she could have certain creative freedom. So she went for journalism, with a side of photography and creative writing.

She wished she could say it was enough. But no matter how many things she had to do, Kara kept coming back to her paintings, hoping she could improve her technique with each try. Before she knew it, she had enrolled in a class, which turned out to be the best part of her week.

It was that brilliant idea what had gotten her into the mess she was currently in: the final test for her class was to deliver a drawing of a nude model. Kara had met the most beautiful girl during one of her late night sessions at the faculty studio. It was awkward and hot and it had given Kara all kinds of feelings that were far from innocent. She knew she needed to draw that perfect body the minute she met Cat Grant; the problem was, she wanted to do a hell of a lot more with the girl than just draw.

Seeing as there was no book about dealing with inappropriate crushes when you’re about to see them naked for pure educational purposes, Kara had to steel herself for what was coming. She cleaned her apartment around -the only thing she could do to ease her nerves- but a soft knock on the door stopped her movements. She gulped and went to open.

“Cat”, she said breathily, incapable of holding back her smile.

“Hi”, Cat answered, putting a strand of golden hair behind her ear. “May I?”

“Yes, of course. Sorry” Kara said, stepping awkwardly to the side, allowing the girl in.

Cat walked as if she owned the place, looking stunning in a pair of yoga pants and a white tank top. Kara couldn’t help getting lost in the toned muscles of the girl’s arms; she wondered what it would be like to trace every single inch of her skin with the tip of her fingers, perhaps while running her tongue down…

“Kara?” Cat said, obviously amused at the girl.

“What?” the girl snapped, blushing madly.

“I said, where do you want me?” she accentuated every one of the words with an enticing movement of her lips.

Kara was certain she would not survive this ordeal.

“I was thinking the living room would be nice, let me just close the curtains”

“No need”, Cat said nonchalantly, dropping her bag unceremoniously on the floor. She took off the tank top, revealing a white sports bra and a taut abdomen. “You see, my philosophy is, if you have it, flaunt it”

“Right”, Kara said, blushing and tripping with the back of the couch. She dragged one of the stools and sat at what felt like a safe distance from Cat. Her whole body was working on autopilot now;she took one of her pencils with more strength than necessary when the woman discarded the bra, her small breasts finally free. Kara gulped and Cat gave her a predatory smile. She never broke eye contact with the girl as she grabbed the waist of her pants and dragged them down her legs. Once she finished the journey down her legs, she stood up straight again, clad in nothing but a white thong.

“Ready?”, Cat said playfully, putting her hands on her hips. And that last motion was what sent Kara over the edge. She threw the notebook across the room and lurched forward, kneeling right in front of Cat, her chest heaving. She felt desire consuming every single part of her being and Kara was certain the only way to sate it was touching Cat in every single way.

“Let me”, Kara pleaded, raising one hand to Cat’s sides. She caressed softly and the woman responded with a moan. Cat threaded her fingers on Kara’s hair and pulled roughly. Kara kissed Cat’s navel, inhaling the woman’s scent. There was no room for thoughts as she took one small string and pulled down…

“Kara?!” a familiar voice said and both women turned around to face the intruder. Kara felt horrified when she saw her sister in the middle of her apartment, mouth open.

“Alex! We were just…”

“Is she your girlfriend?”, Cat asked, looking more annoyed than mortified over the whole situation.

“I’m her sister”, Alex said with a strangled voice, covering her eyes as time went by and Cat made no effort to cover herself. “I will see myself out. Call me later, Kara. We _need_ to talk”

The brunette turned around and closed the door with more roughness than necessary, making Kara wince at the noise. She looked up at Cat and to her relief, the woman was rather pleased with herself.

“I hope no one else will interrupt us” she purred, running her thumb across Kara’s bottom lip. The blonde darted out her tongue and licked Cat’s finger with abandonment. “Now, put that mouth of yours to good use, Danvers”

Because, you see, Kara’s philosophy was, if you have her, _fuck her._


	6. Selfies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara uses Cat's camera to take ridiculous pictures

Kara shied away from expensive things all the time. It was partly due to the fact that she had grown up in a modest home -the Danvers didn’t have financial problems, but weren’t swimming in money either- and it didn’t really had anything to do with her salary -which, in spite of Cat’s comments, wasn’t _that_ low-. Kara’s avoidance of luxurious things came from her proclivity to break them. She had learned to control her strength, but even in everyday actions, like washing the dishes, flopping down on the couch or hell, even cleaning down, she left traces of everything she did. Scratches and small marks that reminded her no matter how much she controlled herself, she was still too strong for the world around her.

Cat tried to change that, of course. She was used to everything irrationally expensive, which for some strange reason was, more often than not, extremely fragile too. Like the cutlery Kara ended up crushing when she found a hard piece of chicken during dinner or the expensive vase - a gift from Chinese president Xi Jinping-  that she broke when she was trying to clean Cat’s studio. And all that Cat could do was purse her lips, because god damn it, she was only human and Kara had the face of a puppy that had been kicked around.

There was, however, one single thing that Kara really, really wanted to try.

Cat’s camera. Or, at least one of them: the Leica S2-P. The sight of it made Kara tremble; she had been an avid photographer during her time in college, but being the assistant of the most powerful person in National City and a superhero left no time for her hobby. Until that day, when she had taken a day off from everything, chilling in her girlfriend’s penthouse and waiting for her to return from a meeting. As she flopped down on the couch, she saw the camera case in one of the ottomans and took a moment to think about all the ways this could go wrong.

She did it anyway.

After a quick trip back to her apartment, where she had all sorts of costumes from past Halloweens or school plays -yes, she had been a theater geek- Kara prepared everything in the living room for her improvised photoshoot. She set up the tripod and adjusted the settings according to the light that came through the windows. Kara went for the most idiotic poses and outfits, including the very revealing outfit she had bought for a Halloween party in college, but hadn’t gotten the nerve to actually wear.  She was about to take a picture with her flamingo hat when her hearing alerted her of Cat’s approach. In just a matter of seconds, everything looked as if nothing had ever happened.

“Hey”, Kara said nonchalantly from her place on the couch, as Cat walked her way. She kicked off her shoes, tackled the girl in an embrace and sighed.

“Tired. Hate. People”

“I know” Kara massaged her shoulders and cuddled closer to Cat. “Just close your eyes and try to rest”.

They were both asleep in a couple of minutes.

*

There was a nagging feeling on the back of Kara’s mind every time she thought of the thing she had done. But nothing really came to mind until she went inside Cat’s studio a week later, searching for some papers the woman needed for her next day meeting. Because right there, behind Cat’s mahogany desk, was a 8x12 print of one of the very last pictures she had taken, holding a giant piece of cheese and looking like a maniac while preparng to bite it.

_Crap._

“What is taking you so long, Kara?” Cat practically kicked the door down, always impatient. Kara exchanged looks between the woman and the photograph, speechless. “Ah, _that_ ”

“I swear I didn’t mean to…”

“You know, you’re lucky I didn’t simply insert the memory card in my computer and sent the files to the Tribune without checking first. It would have been very hard to explain, especially…” she walked around Kara and opened the top drawer. “ _This_ ”

Kara received the print of her very revealing outfit, every inch of her face blushing.

“Dear, what’s mine is yours. So if you ever have the desire to play model again, please let me know, because I’d be very happy to do you.” Cat said with a mischievous smile. “And now, back to that particular outfit, when can I see it for myself?”

Kara let out a small laugh ad picked up Cat from the ground, their lips meeting in a short and messy kiss.

“How about now?”, she growled, walking to their bedroom.

“No time like the present” Cat purred before melting in the embrace.

And in that moment, Kara felt like the most precious thing in Cat’s world.


End file.
